Power, constitutional identity and the quest for a peoples' constitution in Tanzania

Abstract

The history of constitution making in Tanzania since the colonial era to date has been dominated by calls for a peoples' constitution that represents a broader national consensus. Irrespective of their weight, these calls reveal an infancy of constitutional identity in Tanzania. While several antecedents for constitutional identity formation have been recorded since the attainment of independence in 1961, they are still insufficient to provide an anatomy of such identity. This insufficiency has significantly contributed to a national consensus that the country needs a new constitution. This consensus is however, decimated by lack of a common agreement especially among political elites on how the new constitution should be obtained. As constitution making continues to suffer from struggles and factionalism among political elites, securing a broader national consensus is very crucial in making the constitution that bears commonly agreed pillars from which the country's constitutional identity should be built.